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Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Republican leaders named Representative Harold Rogers as their choice to head the Appropriations Committee, which would put the Kentuckian at the center of his party‚Äôs efforts next year to slash the federal budget.

The selection of Rogers, once named the ‚ÄúPrince of Pork‚ÄĚ by a Kentucky newspaper, is expected to be confirmed by all Republican House members today. That will put him in charge of determining how to dole out more than $1 trillion in annual government spending.

Rogers‚Äô endorsement of the party‚Äôs earmark moratorium marks an about-face for him. The Lexington Herald-Leader, in dubbing him the ‚ÄúPrince of Pork,‚ÄĚ called Rogers ‚Äúthe very model of an old-fashioned pork-barrel politician who builds an empire out of government spending.‚ÄĚ Over the past three years, he has taken home $246 million in earmarks, according to the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Ha ha ha ha. Reducing the deficit has nothing to do with reducing spending, it has everything to do with reallocating spending. At best the only reductions will be short term. That is until the government can invent some other scare tactic to justify some other long term spending craze.